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IRISi is delighted to announce that Southwest London Integrated Care Board (ICB) will fund the IRIS (Identification and referral to improve safety) programme in Sutton, Wandsworth and East Merton, continuing provision whilst also supporting the return of the programme in Croydon.

This investment is a significant commitment to improving the healthcare response to domestic abuse (DA) across Southwest London and enables more patients to access specialist support through their GP practice.

The decision builds on years of partnership working between Southwest London ICB, local GP practices, specialist domestic abuse services and IRISi. It also marks an important next step for areas where the London Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) provided the initial investment to establish IRIS and demonstrate the difference it can make.

We are grateful to the VRU for their support and vision in recognising the role healthcare can play in identifying domestic abuse and the continued support of the Southwest London ICB to connect survivors with vital specialist support. We are very pleased to continue working alongside our delivery partners Refuge, Sutton Women’s Centre and Bromley & Croydon Women’s Aid to deliver the programme across Southwest London.

Dr Tom Coffey OBE, Wandsworth Clinical Lead and Health Advisor to the Mayor of London said:

“IRIS empowers GP teams to identify and respond to domestic abuse with confidence through expert training and support. Its flexible approach fits busy practices, while high-quality advocacy ensures patients get the specialist help they need—when they need it most.”

Estelene Klaasen, Designated Nurse Adults Safeguarding said:

“ IRIS supports GP teams to recognise hidden abuse, respond with confidence, and create safe spaces for disclosure—strengthened through trusted relationships in primary care.”

Dr Eleanor Barnard, GP and Sutton IRIS Clinical Lead, said:

“ Training delivered by specialist advocates builds confidence to refer, while creating a trusted, personal service for patients. IRIS also strengthens peer support—enabling shared learning, better management of complex cases, and closer links to MARAC.”

The continuation of IRIS in Sutton, Wandsworth and East Merton, alongside the programme’s return to Croydon demonstrates what can be achieved when healthcare commissioners, primary care teams and specialist domestic abuse services work together with a shared commitment to supporting survivors.

IRISi looks forward to continuing this work with partners across Southwest London and helping ensure that more survivors can access safe, specialist support through one of the most trusted and accessible parts of the healthcare system: their GP practice.

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Partners

AVA
AVA
AVA

AVA is an expert, groundbreaking and independent charity working across the UK.

Their vision is a world without gender based violence and abuse. They aim to  inspire innovation and collaboration and encourage and enable direct service providers to help end gender based violence and abuse particularly against women and girls.AVA’s work is focused around those areas where they can make the best contribution to ending violence and abuse. They do this by making sure that survivors get the help and support they need in the here and now, through providing innovative training that has a proven direct impact on the professional practice of people supporting survivors of violence and abuse

developing a range of toolkits, e-learning and other material that supports professionals to provide effective and appropriate support to survivors of violence and abuse

using our influence and networks to ensure survivors voices are heard. We work closely with AVA in many areas including the Pathfinder project

https://avaproject.org.uk

SafeLives
SafeLives
SafeLives

SafeLives are a national charity dedicated to ending domestic abuse, for good. We combine insight from services, survivors and statistics to support people to become safe, well and rebuild their lives. Since 2005, SafeLives has worked with organisations across the country to transform the response to domestic abuse, with over 60,000 victims at highest risk of murder or serious harm now receiving co-ordinated support annually. SafeLives are members of the Pathfinder consortium.

About us

IMKAAN
IMKAAN
IMKAAN

Imkaan is a UK-based, Black feminist organisation. We are the only national second-tier women’s organisation dedicated to addressing violence against Black and minoritised women and girls i.e. women and girls which are defined in policy terms as Black and ‘Minority Ethnic’ (BME). The organisation holds nearly two decades of experience of working around issues such as domestic violence, forced marriage and ‘honour-based’ violence.

They work at local, national and international level, and in partnership with a range of organisations, to improve policy and practice responses to Black and minoritised women and girls. Imkaan works with it’s members to represent the expertise and perspectives of frontline, specialist and dedicated Black and minoritised women’s organisations that work to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls. Imkaan delivers a unique package of support which includes: quality assurance; accredited training and peer education; sustainability support to frontline Black and minoritised organisations; and facilitation of space for community engagement and development. They are a part of the Pathfinder Consortium.

https://www.imkaan.org.uk

The University of Bristol CAPC
The University of Bristol CAPC
The University of Bristol CAPC

The Centre for Academic Primary Care (CAPC) is a leading centre for primary care research in the UK, one of nine forming the NIHR School for Primary Care Research.  It is part of Bristol Medical School, an internationally recognised centre of excellence for population health research and teaching.

A dedicated team of researchers at the Centre work on domestic abuse projects and IRISi is a co-collaborator and partner on some of these projects including ReProvide, HERA and DRiDVA.

The Health Foundation
The Health Foundation
The Health Foundation

The Health Foundation is an independent charity committed to bringing about better health and health care for people in the UK. The Health Foundation’s Exploring Social Franchising programme aims to generate a deeper understanding of the potential of social franchising models for scaling effective health and social care interventions within the NHS.

We are one of four project teams participating in the programme to develop a social franchise to enable the sustainable spread of our intervention, the IRIS Programme. We receive funding and support from the Health Foundation, including technical expertise on social franchising, and attend programme learning events. The Health Foundation has also commissioned a programme-wide evaluation to support understanding of the use of social franchising in the UK health and care system. We and our franchisees will support the evaluation through co-designing data collection requirements, providing access to data as requested, hosting site visits and attending learning events.

https://www.health.org.uk

STADV
STADV
STADV

Standing Together Against Domestic Violence is a UK charity bringing communities together to end domestic abuse. They bring local services together to keep people safe

Most public services weren’t designed with domestic abuse in mind, and they often struggle to keep people safe. Poor communication and gaps between services put survivors at risk.

STADV aim to end domestic abuse by changing the way that local services respond to it. They do this through an approach that they pioneered, called the Coordinated Community Response. The Coordinated Community Response brings services together to ensure local systems truly keep survivors safe, hold abusers to account, and prevent domestic abuse.

Their model of a coordinated local partnership to tackle and ultimately prevent domestic violence is now widely accepted as best practice. They are also a part of the Pathfinder consortium.

http://www.standingtogether.org.uk

Spring Impact
Spring Impact
Spring Impact

Spring Impact is a not-for-profit social enterprise born out of the frustration of seeing social organisations constantly reinventing the wheel and wasting scarce resources. Spring Impact uses a combination of tested commercial and social principles and extensive practical expertise to support organisations to identify, design and implement the right social replication model to scale their social impact.

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